Simon English: BT's new yes we can attitude

A POLL of the phrases the general public most closely associate with BT might include the following: sluggish civil service; bureaucratic stick-in-the-muds; those blokes that never turn up on time to mend your phone. Even if that’s long been unfair — BT does all sorts of clever things behind the scenes, not least protecting Britain from thousands of cyberattacks — the company has tended to be defensive.

Mired in fights with regulators and governments, perhaps staff felt unloved and executives felt defeated, not least by endless pension deficits and competition from new players who blamed BT when things went wrong and took credit when they went right. Into this quagmire bounces new chief executive Philip Jansen, who recognises the malaise and wants to get on the front foot.

The most striking example of his intent came three months ago when he was asked if BT could meet Boris Johnson’s target of ultra-fast internet for everyone in Britain by 2025. The old BT would have demurred, even panicked perhaps. Jansen’s answer was, more or less, “Yes, we’re up for it.” He wants to take his more-than 100,000 staff with him, to make them proud of what BT does well and get them to fix the rest. So he’s slimming from 300 offices to 30. Bringing call centres back to the UK from overseas in the name of customer service, and forget about the extra costs.

No other company could spend the billions needed to ultra wi-fi Britain, Jansen notes, and he intends to get ahead of the market. At the moment, not many people particularly need or want it; but they will. Jansen notes that BT retains the public trust.

When they knock on the door, people let them in the house just as they would the police or the gasman. They inherently trust the brand. He wants BT to become a “national champion”, a positive example of what Britain can do when it shakes off its natural caution and just goes for it. Jansen says he is already getting letters from people praising BT’s improved customer service, but admits there are still far too many detailing just how badly the company let them down.

To achieve his vision, the next government needs to back him. It needs to remove business rates that penalise fibre build; it needs to give BT’s Openreach arm the same rights of access to buildings as that granted to other utilities. To spend the money he needs to spend, Jansen will almost certainly have to cut the dividend. But, in the spirit of adventure, even the City might get behind that and tell BT to crack on.

The old BT would have demurred, even panicked perhaps. Jansen’s answer was ‘We’re up for it’ He wants to take

his more-than 100,000 staff with him, to make them proud of what BT does well and get them to fix the rest. So he’s slimming from 300 offices to 30. Bringing call centres back to the UK from overseas in the name of customer service, and forget about the extra costs.

No other company could spend the billions needed to ultra wi-fi Britain, Jansen notes, and he intends to get ahead of the market. At the moment, not many people particularly need or want it; but they will. Jansen notes that BT retains the public trust. When they knock on the door, people let them in the house just as they would the police or the gasman. They inherently trust the brand. He wants BT to become a “national champion”, a positive example of what Britain can do when it shakes off its natural caution and just goes for it. Jansen says he is already getting letters from people praising BT’s

improved customer service, but admits there are still far too many detailing just how badly the company let them down. To achieve his vision, the next government needs to back him. It needs to remove business rates that penalise fibre build; it needs to give BT’s Openreach arm the same rights of access to buildings as that granted to other utilities. To spend the money he needs to spend, Jansen will almost certainly have to cut the dividend. But, in the spirit of adventure, even the City might get behind that and tell BT to crack on.